David Norris (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I join in the welcome to our distinguished Austrian colleagues.

The longer the McNulty affair continues, the more everybody, particularly in political life, is negatively affected. I have been trying to understand the Taoiseach's position. I am sure this will be an issue of curiosity and interest to our Austrian friends. Apparently, the Taoiseach sees no discrepancy at all between sustaining a rotten borough election in which there are 225 votes involved to elect somebody to this House and the national Parliament and his attempts to dilute the independent university seats, of which there are six, and expand that electorate to 850,000 votes. Somebody should take note of this.

Another issue is that Mr. McNulty has withdrawn from the election. He announced his withdrawal and that announcement was repeated in the Dáil. However, people are still voting for him and it is said that he can be elected. How can somebody be elected if he has withdrawn from the election? It is said his name remained on the ballot paper. He could have died and remained on it, but would he be elected then? Would he take his seat in the House as a corpse? This is nonsense. His name could have and should have been withdrawn and those votes cast for him should be discounted.

Last week, when we dealt with the Freedom of Information Act here, the Government prated about the importance of letting a prurient press pore over all our taxi receipts and receipts for a sandwich here and there. "Freedom of information" is a buzz phrase that is all over the place, yet Deputy Heather Humphreys, the Minister for Arts-----